ARF 16610 LV

[anto88]

looks great

 

[JaffaCakes]

Kerushi11 I’ve sent ado a message today to see if he is willing to look at and fix the watch with a service too. I have also emailed Andrew to see if there is anything else he can do other than me having to send it back to him. Wish I had the skills and tools to have a go myself.
Hinclimincli Thanks for the advice. Hopefully he will come to some sort of arrangement with me.

 

[Hinclimincli]

What if you sent him only the bracelet and Andrew gets it fixed? Meanwhile you can use it on a NATO (or a RAF, my favourite nylon strap for subs). I know him and he's a top guy, I'm sure he'll be reasonable and will find a good solution. The bracelet can be sent via normal air mail without much problem, I'm pretty sure customs won't seize it. On the other hand, I don't know how is he supposed to fix that broken endlink, though...

 

[JaffaCakes]

What if you sent him only the bracelet and Andrew gets it fixed? Meanwhile you can use it on a NATO (or a RAF, my favourite nylon strap for subs). I know him and he's a top guy, I'm sure he'll be reasonable and will find a good solution. The bracelet can be sent via normal air mail without much problem, I'm pretty sure customs won't seize it. On the other hand, I don't know how is he supposed to fix that broken endlink, though...

That’s another option I can put to him I suppose. With my luck no matter what I post back it will probably get stopped by customs.

 

[JaffaCakes]

Quick update. I’ve kindly been given half a bracelet to replace the damaged part. Andrew is sending me a new clasp, although he says this may take a while. I’ve been in contact with ado and hopefully he will fix the bezel for me and service the watch. So hopefully I will have a half decent 16610lv for the summer once I’ve added my genuine parts.

 

[Jerome Rome]

Here is an ARF 16610LV with gen datewheel, gen insert, and professional case / bracelet polishing. Since receiving the watch I wanted to fix the small date issue. I read on RWI somewhere that increasing the crystal height would help, and in these photos the watch has a 3.5mm gasket (I believe the ARF is 3.0mm). I also read that the ARF dial may have a smaller date cutout that makes it look slightly off from gen. With the 3.5mm gasket I like the date picture but the crystal is too high, haha. I may be swapping back to the stock ARF and just deal with it, or swap to ARF gasket and get another rep dial from a BP or similar that has a properly sized cutout. Overall satisfied with the watch but would rather have the small date than the high crystal.
ARF 3.5mm Gasket - Gen Datewheel

ARF Gen Datewheel - 3.5mm gasket


ARF Gen Datewheel - 3.5mm gasket

 

[Shany]

Can you Show us the 3mm gasket?

The 3,5mm with gen is to high yes

 

[Jerome Rome]

This is the best angle I have of the 3.0mm gasket. It's from the QC photos (Intime A+ as always). My watch builder was able to fix the sloppy bezel as well as get the best click action somehow. The common bezel rocking issue and usual soft click is completely gone. When he removed the issue with the bezel rocking back and forth I wonder if the bezel sits even lower now. Which makes the 3.5 gasket / crystal height even more extreme. The builder advised me to not install the 3.5 gasket by the way, but I didn't send him the stock 3.0 so I was S.O.L. and eager to see it after his work. Now I will likely have to get a new load of parts together and send it all back to him... I'll have to dig deeper but now I'm expecting to at least source a BP or similar LV dial and send the builder the stock 3.0 gasket and new dial. Maybe it will be close enough then. Or maybe I'll sell this one on RWI as a decent starting point for an LV build. Then wait for a great franken 6 digit LN rep to show up on here. The bezel is the only thing messing this up for me currently. The stock 3.0mm height is still a bit to too high v/s gen from the research I've done. In my original pic above you can SEE the 3.5 gasket between the bezel and crystal. Truly a VOMIT sub haha

 

[flextime]

I did the opposite and put in a 2.5mm gasket to lower the crystal from the 2.7mm stock

 

[flextime]

This is what the mag looks like with a 2.5mm gasket. ARF with a VS3135

 

[ashu2289]

The above two examples are quite low and too high respectively imo...the correct gasket is 2.7mm I guess and it should look like this.
This is with Gen Gasket. crystal, bezel assembly including tension washer, retainer ring n insert.

 

[Jerome Rome]

@flextime It looks great with the 2.5 gasket. I believe the ARF LV dial date window cutout is too small and making the overall date picture too small with a stock ARF gasket. If I get the cutout size to look correct in the cyclops using a 3.0mm gasket the font is too large and the crystal too high. If I get the font size to look correct using a 2.5-2.7 gasket the cutout looks too small but the crystal is almost perfect. I wonder if the LN dial you have has the correct sized date cutout in the dial and that's why your 2.5 looks so much better. Hopefully just sourced a gen crystal and gen gasket so I'll post pics when the work is done. I expect with the gen parts the date picture will be too small for my liking and I'll be back to the drawing board...

 

[flextime]

@flextime It looks great with the 2.5 gasket. I believe the ARF LV dial date window cutout is too small and making the overall date picture too small with a stock ARF gasket. If I get the cutout size to look correct in the cyclops using a 3.0mm gasket the font is too large and the crystal too high. If I get the font size to look correct using a 2.5-2.7 gasket the cutout looks too small but the crystal is almost perfect. I wonder if the LN dial you have has the correct sized date cutout in the dial and that's why your 2.5 looks so much better. Hopefully just sourced a gen crystal and gen gasket so I'll post pics when the work is done. I expect with the gen parts the date picture will be too small for my liking and I'll be back to the drawing board...

It may be worthwhile swapping out the xtal entirely. The mag on the ARF crystal is inconsistent for what I’ve gather. The thickness is also off. I believe a gen xtal is 1.8mm with a 2.7mm gasket. The ARF on mine is a 2.0mm xtal and with the 2.5mm gasket, it sits better.

I don’t have a gen 5-digit. But a gen 6-digit sits lower and similar to what I have now.

 

[flextime]

Here is an ARF 16610LV with a stock xtal and a VR3135

 

[vcelkama]

Hi, refreshing this older discussion

I'm about to mod ARF 16610 LN and LV. I was able to get some ARF parts and I plan to use some of them (mainly case, backcase). What I plan to do is:

- fit VS3135 with the DW (LN and LV)
- replace ARF crystal and gasket with Clark crystal and new gasket (LN and LV)
- replace ARF insert for LN with gen, get insert for LV from ebay / Ali? (seems gen LV inserts are pretty expensive)

Where I'm looking for some help is:

1. Should I try to get better crown for 16610 (triple lock 703 / 704) or is the ARF close to gen and there are no better aftermarket versions? (I think I won't go with gen as it is too expensive)
2. Does anyone have an idea where to get 16610 LV dial? (I tried Ruby and Yuki but they don't have it, gen is too expensive)

I would appreciate any feedback or help

 

[centrum]

I received a ARF 16610LN and LV from the same dealer. The LN has solid bracelets while the LV has hollow, tin like bracelets. Is this normal for the ARF LV? Does the gen also have tin like feel?

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[Tobel]

Does the gen also have tin like feel?

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Yes, bracelets before 6 digit Rolex were not as sturdy and premium feeling as they are now

 

[heska]

Hi, refreshing this older discussion

I'm about to mod ARF 16610 LN and LV. I was able to get some ARF parts and I plan to use some of them (mainly case, backcase). What I plan to do is:

- fit VS3135 with the DW (LN and LV)
- replace ARF crystal and gasket with Clark crystal and new gasket (LN and LV)
- replace ARF insert for LN with gen, get insert for LV from ebay / Ali? (seems gen LV inserts are pretty expensive)

Where I'm looking for some help is:

1. Should I try to get better crown for 16610 (triple lock 703 / 704) or is the ARF close to gen and there are no better aftermarket versions? (I think I won't go with gen as it is too expensive)
2. Does anyone have an idea where to get 16610 LV dial? (I tried Ruby and Yuki but they don't have it, gen is too expensive)

I would appreciate any feedback or help

- VS datewheel is good enough IMO
- I remember to had a few gasket trial and errors fiiting a gen crystal on my JF, but i can't remember which one finally fit. VS crystal is superior ot Clarck IMO

- Crown is good enough, or at least really not one of the first part i'd replace with gen
- You can try finding a BP one but be carefull there is two version, one 2824 (not compatible with 3135) and one 3135. Another solution would be to find a 6 digit recent dial (VS,CF or ZF) and relume it to luminova (green lume). Font will be incorrect but indexes soft as they should

 

[centrum]

Yes, bracelets before 6 digit Rolex were not as sturdy and premium feeling as they are now

Interesting, because my ARF 16610LN has that premium, sturdy feeling. I was wondering if ARF cheapened out the bracelets on the LV or the gen LV has rattly bracelets compared to those of the LN.

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[Tobel]

Interesting, because my ARF 16610LN has that premium, sturdy feeling. I was wondering if ARF cheapened out the bracelets on the LV or the gen LV has rattly bracelets compared to those of the LN.

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In gen it's not LV Vs. LN, they all have the same bracelet. It's 5 digit Vs. 6 digit
I own a gen 16610LV and a gen 116610LN and the difference in bracelet quality is significant